Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Rub the butter onto the inside of your slow cooker. Layer in the sweet potato slices. In a small mixing bowl, combine the orange juice, vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar, and kosher salt. Pour this mixture evenly over the top of the sweet potatoes. Cover, and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours, or on high for 3 to 4 hours. When potatoes are soft, scoop into an oven-safe dish, dot with marshmallows, and broil in the oven for 3 to 5 minutes, or until marshmallows have JUST begun to brown.

Enjoy!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Day 10.

It is not Thanksgiving. But I promised the kids that I would make something yummy tonight. They chose "those really good potato things that grandma makes with marshmallows."

I am pretty sure that my mom makes them from a can. Which is totally fine--but I did happen to have a bag of sweet potatoes in the crisper drawer. (new ones. not the bag from here.)

After opening and closing cabinet doors way too many times, I settled on the following:

The Verdict:

It tasted amazing. I could have gotten away with 1/2 of the sugar amount. The taste was exactly like the canned stuff. But this cooked for 5 1/2 hours--so it has to be better, right?

right?

The marshmallows completely disappear while cooking. Warn small children.

Trust me.

updated 12/08: I made these for our Thanksgiving dinner, and they were amazing. I doubled the recipe and didn't add the marshmallows until the very end. Instead, I scooped the finished sweet potatoes out of the crock, and put in a round corningware dish. I added the marshmallows, and broiled in the oven for 3-5 minutes until the marshmallows were browned nicely. We had 10 adults and 5 kids for dinner, and everyone loved them. It seems the secret to feeding kids is to starve them beforehand... ;-)

HI-I saw your blog link on an aol food board. I love it!! I also have a crockpot that I never use, and would love to find different dishes that have been tested to try!! Love your blog!!I was wondering--you put the sweet potatoes in raw?? did you use the juice from 2 oranges or the 1/4 cup? Sounds delicious and I want to try?Thank you!Carm

carm, if we hadn't finished the orange juice for breakfast, I would have used regular orange juice. The juice from those two little oranges is what I happened to use instead. Yup, the sweet potatoes were raw.thank you!xoxsteph

Suzanne Earley turned me on to your blog. I do use my crockpot quite a bit, but haven't gotten very creative with it. I'm definitely going to try the chicken enchilada casserole! Your blog is not only informative, it's fun to read!

Steph, sorry if I sound totally ignorant but I come from a country where crockpot has not surfaced (India).

What is the motivation to cook in a crockpot as against, say, a pressure cooker? Is the food healthier? (I thought veggies would lose enzymes from long cooking times..) What about power consumption? Does the crockpot consume too much power from being on all those hours?

Once again, I'm vegetarian so the idea of tenderising meat does not talk to me :)

anu, I haven't ever used a pressure cooker, so I don't know the difference--I wish I did. I don't have actual statistics, but from the cookbooks I've read, I've gathered that crockpot cooking is very energy-efficient. Although I enjoy making Al Gore happy, I think what *really* makes me happy is the whole "set it and forget it" aspect to crockpotting. I adore throwing something in there and then going about my day doing other things while dinner (or dessert, or sides, and apparently mulled wine which I'm very excited to try...) cook unattended.xoxosteph

did you know that marshmallows can be frozen? i haven't tried it myself, but saw it on a cooking show, so it must be true. and if you're using them for this recipe again, if you toss them in frozen, maybe they won't completely melt away....someone should try it =)

I made this for Thanksgiving dinner and my family loved them. We couldn't find peeled, sliced, bagged sweet potatoes, so we used 7 whole potatoes chopped and doubled everything but the sugar (upped that to 1/3 cup). Everybody loved these. Great blog!

I only have a large slow cooker. This burned but had great potential. Next time I am going to try your trick of putting it in a smaller heat safe container inside. I've decided to start from Jan 01 08 and try every recipe I think the fam will eat. I've made 8 so far in the last month. I'm might be a little obsessed. THANKS!

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